For the Last Time
by darkwoodsdreamer
Summary: He only wished that the last time he had seen her, talked to her, cried with her... She could have, too. Short oneshot, not Snape/Lily, but it doesn't really have a coupling anyways.


**For the Play It Loud challenge by IMBECILIN, I bring you For the Last Time. My character was Snape and my song was The Last Time by All That Remains. Umm... I don't know what else to say... Oh! Not that any of you care but yesterday I got my nose pierced! ^_^**

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><p>Severus Snape stared at the scene around him in horror. He stood in front of the Potter house, all thought and memory of what the reason he had come there in the first place gone from his mind as he slowly made his way closer to the ruins, not daring to believe or trust his eyes for even a second.<p>

One side of the house was completely blown off. He heard a crunch under his feet and looked down to see splinters crushed under his dark shoes. The front door was blown off and the windows shattered. It was eerily quiet - not even the crickets were out, all either scared away or dead.

He peered in through the doorway and saw the body of James Potter lying just past the doorway, his eyes open and staring blankly at the ceiling. Severus wasn't concerned; his only concern was the fact that Lily Evans Potter was not crying over his body, which could mean nothing good.

He hurried through the destroyed living room and up the stairs to the second floor, fear and dread filling him. Where was Lily? Was she alright? He already knew the answer to the second one, but he wouldn't let himself think about it. If he did, he would lose his willpower, and that was all that was keeping him going.

The first room he checked was the master bedroom. Apparently this room had not been checked by the Dark Lord. It looked almost entirely untouched, blankets neatly draped across the bed, night table organized and clean and rug vacuumed. The window that overlooked the street had shattered, however, and pieces of glass blanketed the floor. The closet door was hanging on only the bottom hinge, no doubt knocked off by the same explosion that had blown off the side of the house.

Severus took this all in in mere seconds before dashing back out of the room. He looked to his left and right, cool wind from the missing wall softly blowing his long black hair into his face. He noticed an open door and froze. He had a horrible feeling that this was the exact room he was looking for. He swallowed the huge lump in his throat and willed his legs to carry himself to the room and stood in front of the doorway.

He had not sufficiently prepared himself for the sight before him.

Lily Evans Potter, love of his life and previous best friend, was sprawled on the floor, flaming hair fanned out under her head and back. Approaching shakily, Severus saw her glassy green eyes staring up at the ceiling, still puffy with tear stains on her face, indicating she had been crying.

Severus broke down. He collapsed to the floor and cradled Lily in his arms with arms shaking so bad he almost dropped her. Tears cascaded down his face as he rocked slightly, and he bent his head down over her so his hair would fall in his face, his sobbing blocked from view from any non-existent onlookers.

He was trapped in his own world of grief. The pain and guilt enveloped and crushed him, as though it was trying to suffocate him. He pushed a lock of hair out of Lily's face and stared into her beautiful eyes, once so alight with happiness and laughter and intelligence, but now blank and dead, unseeing. She did not know he was crying for her. She did not know that he would spend the rest of his life thinking of her. She did not know that, as he thought this, her son wailed in the background.

It was not until he thought this that he actually registered the crying. He whipped around, tears wet on his face, to stare at the crib behind him. A small boy, maybe a year old, sobbed as he watched him cradle the body of his mother. The boy was the spitting image of his father, Severus thought with contempt. His black hair stuck up in the exact same way, his skin tone exactly alike.

But no, something was different. Severus placed Lily gingerly on the ground and picked up the small child to study his face. The shock caused him to stop crying, much to Severus's relief.

The eyes, he realized. The eyes were precisely the same shade of delicate green as Lily's. It made him realize that this really was Lily's son. Of course, he had always known it logically, but it had never really sunk in. This boy was the one that Lily had died to save. This was the boy Lord Voldemort had killed Lily to get to.

Hot boiling anger at his old master rose within him, plus a guilt so powerful new tears sprang to his eyes. Seeing this, the child still held in front of him began to whimper as well, lower lip trembling. Severus hastily, wiped his eyes on his shoulder, not wishing for him to start crying again. He had to protect the boy - what was his name? Harry, that's right. His precious Lily had died to save young Harry, and as the one almost directly responsible for her death, it was his duty to keep the boy safe, both from Lord Voldemort and from becoming the man his father had. He pulled the child closer to him and prepared to Apparate with the child in hand. He could hear the sirens now - the surrounding Muggles must have been charmed not to notice anything and were just now realizing what had happened and calling the authorities. He couldn't be found here and neither could Harry. So he twisted on the spot, and with a loud crack, disappeared.

Later, after the Muggles had been warded off and Memory Charms placed on them to forget the horrific and mysterious scene they had witnessed and before the Auror's had made it to the room where he had discovered Lily and her son, Severus gingerly replaced the small boy in his crib and Dis-Apparated before a squat man with mousy brown hair stumbled in and shouted, "Up here! Merlin, the kid is still alive! He's alive!"


End file.
